THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW 
RECONSTRUCTION 


BY 


KELLY  MILLER 


Author:  "Race  Adjustment"— "Out  of  the  House  of 

Bondage" — '  'Appeal  to  Conscience" — "Disgrace. 

of  Democracy"  Etc.,  Etc. 


HOWARD:;UNIVERSITY 

WASHINGTON  "D.  C. 


™  is  but 
;he  uplifted 


PRICE  TENOTNTS 


THE  NEGRO'S  PLACE  IN  THE 
NEW  RECONSTRUCTION 

By  KELLY  MILLER 


MORAL  REVOLUTION 

The  inherent  rights  of  man  receive  emphasis  and  new  asser 
tion  at  moments  of  social  stress  and  strain.  When  society  i 
in  travail,  liberty  is  born.  During  the  long  eras  of  leisure,  tho 
spirit  of  liberty  languishes.  Existing  order  is  transformed, 
and  all  things  made  new  amidst  the  fire  and  smoke  of  revolu 
tion.  In  times  of  quietude  and  peace,  social  evils  accumulate 
and  crystallize.  The  acquisition  of  wealth  and  the  attainment 
of  culture  and  refinement  constitute  the  goal  of  endeavor. 
Discontent  is  decried  and  the  soul  seeks  its  ease.  The  voice  of 
the  reformer  is  denounced  as  tending  to  disturb  social  placidity 
and  repose.  The  troublesome  issues  of  the  rights  of  man  are 
banished  from  consciousness.  Inequalities  arise,  aristocratic 
prerogative  is  asserted,  and  divine  sanction  assumed  as  the 
ordained  scheme  of  social  adjustment.  When  reform  becomes 
impossible,  revolution  becomes  imperative.  It  requires  peri 
odic  upheavals  to  startle  the  soul  from  its  complaisant  slum 
ber,  discredit  the  dominance  of  material  aims,  frustrate  the 
assumption  of  arrogance  and  pride,  and  vindicate  the  rights 
of  man  as  the  highest  attainable  human  value. 

History  abounds  in  convulsive  epochs  when  the  acute  evils  of 
society  are  eradicated.  We  have  but  to  recall  the  tremendous 
outburst  of  moral  energy  during  the  Revolutionary  Struggle 
and  the  Civil  War,  to  bring  to  mind  the  operation  of  this  prin 
ciple  within  our  own  national  experience.  Each  of  these  great 
upheavals  served  to  curb  the  arrogant  assumption  of  irrespon 
sible  power,  and  to  give  impulse  to  the  doctrine  of  the  inherent 
claims  of  man  as  man.  The  titanic  struggle,  which  has  just 
engulfed  the  whole  world  in  red  ruin  of  revolution,  is  but 
another  act  in  the  drama  of  human  liberation,  and  the  uplifted 
curtain  shall  fall  on  a  world  transformed. 


2 
J{~ 'REVOLUTIONS  NEVER  GO  BACKWARD. 

Revolutions  never  go  backward.  When  a  nation  puts  its 
hands  to  the  plow  of  liberty,  although  it  might  wistfully  reverse 
its  vision,  yet  the  furrow  which  marks  the  forward  patfi  can 
never  be  effaced.  Revolutions  always  lessen  the  domain  of 
oppression  and  increase  the  area  of  liberty.  By  the  inexorable 
logic  of  events,  the  poor  and  oppressed  receive  the  chief  bene 
fits  of  these  great  movements  of  history.  The  world  convul 
sions  precipitate  the  showers  of  liberty  whose  droppings  fall 
upon  the  needy  and  neglected  of  the  children  of  men.  The  de 
spised  Jew  of  Europe,  the  oppressed  millions  of  Asia,  the  Negro 
in  Africa  and  America,  and  the  under-man  throughout  the 
world  will  be  the  beneficiaries  of  the  blessings  which  flow  from 
the  greatest  epoch  in  the  history  of  social  evolution. 


POWER  AND  PRINCIPLE. 

-low^^ 

The  fundamental  issue  involved  in  this  struggle  is  but  the 
consummation  of  the  age-long  struggle  between  power  and  prin 
ciple.  The  Central  Powers,  under  the  compulsion  of  Germany, 
espoused  the  ancient  dogma  of  the  dominance  of  power  and 
the  divine  right  of  the  strong.  Through  their  ruthless  acts, 
which  spoke  louder  than  their  arrogant  words,  they  defiantly 
declared  that  the  weak  has  no  rights  which  the  strong  is  bound 
to  respect.  When  the  Belgian  border  was  crossed,  the  die  was 
cast.  The  Allies  were  forced,  willingly  or  otherwise,  to  accept 
the  challenge.  Right  and  might  once  more  met  in  open  con 
flict.  There  is  in  the  human  heart  a  deep  seated  conviction  of 
the  indomitability  of  right.  The  universal  and  spontaneous 
response  to  this  appeal  confirms  the  same  conviction.  Power 
may  seem  to  triumph  for  a  while;  might  may  be  enthroned 
while  right  is  enchained ;  but  final  defeat  is  never  accepted 
until  the  verdict  is  reversed,  and  right  is  crowned  victor.  If 
it  appears  that  God  is  on  the  side  of  the  heaviest  battalion, 
a  deeper  insight  and  closer  scrutiny  reveal  the  fact  that  ulti 
mately  the  heaviest  battalion  gets  itself  arrayed  on  the  side  of 
right.  Power  may  put  on  efficiency  and  seem  to  work  wonders 
for  a  while,  but  conscienceless  efficiency  is  no  match  for  effici 
ency  quickened  by  conscience.  The  victorious  outcome  of  this 
titanic  struggle  has  given  to  the  cause  of  right  a  sanction  that 


3 

can  never  again  be  shaken.     The  inviolability  of  the  rights  of 

man  has  become  a  sacred  principle  for  all  time  to  come. 

b 

THE  OVERRULING  PURPOSE.      ,B9ii 

Shakespeare  was  not  uttering  thread-bare  theological  dogma, 
when  he  declared  that  "there  is  a  divinity  which  shapes  our 
ends."  This  belief  is  in  harmony  with  universal  human 
experience.  No  statesman  or  philosopher  was  able  to  fore 
see  or  guide  the  trend  of  events  during  these  five  foregone 
fateful  years.  The  wise  statesmen  have  but  followed  the  flow 
of  events.  The  foolish  tried  to  stem  the  tide.  Men  and 
nations  have  been  moved,  as  it  were,  by  an  unseen  hand,  as 
pawns  upon  the  chess  board  of  the  world.  Those  who  were 
at  first  impelled  by  the  traditional  motives  of  greed,  ambition, 
animosity  and  revenge,  have  been  led  to  a  broader  vision 
as  the  involved  purpose  of  the  great  drama  was  unfolded.  If 
there  have  been  hesitation,  indecision,  and  revised  or 
substituted  statements  of  the  objects  and  aims  of  the 
war,  it  has  been  only  in  proportion  as  a  constant 
ly  clarifying  vision  has  been  vouchsafed  to  those  who  were 
sincerely  seeking  after  the  right  way,  if  haply  they  might 
find  it.  The  wrath  of  man  has  been  made  to  serve  the  great 
consummation,  and  the  remainder  of  wrath  has  been  held 
in  restraint.  The  offense  must  needs  come,  but  woe  unto  that 
man  or  nation  by  whom  it  cometh.  The  Serbian  assassin  of 
an  Austrian  Prince  fired  the  shot  that  shocked  the  world.  But 
we  have  already  forgotten  the  name  of  prince  and  assassin,  in 
the  momentous  results  which  transcended  the  part  vr"hich  these 
unwitting  participants  were  made  to  play.  The  little  fire 
kindleth  a  great  matter,  when  the  fuel  has  already  been  accum 
ulated  for  the  flame.  This  tragedy  was  but  the  exciting  oc 
casion  of  a  deep-seated  cause.  The  idle  gust  overtopples  the 
giant  oak  only  when  the  foundation  has  already  been  under 
mined.  The  fulness  of  time  had  come.  The  world  was  ripe 
for  a  great  moral  revolution.  The  rapid  scientific  and  material 
advancement  had  outrun  ethical  restraint.  Culture  had  sup 
planted  conscience.  Deeds  had  become  glorified  over  ideals; 
the  thing  counted  for  more  than  the  thought.  Success  meant 
more  than  righteousness.  The  rights  of  the  weak  were  sub 
ordinated  to  the  interests  of  the  strong.  Religion  had  be- 

19blO   IT; 


4 

come  silent  in  the  face  of  wrong.  The  church  with  pious  cant 
continued  to  repeat  archaic  phraseology,  while  the  world 
plunged  headlong  into  sin. 

THE  FAILURE  OF  PROPHECY 

It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  human  understanding  that 
the  so-called  wise  men  and  seers  of  the  time  were  proclaiming 
the  era  of  universal  peace  and  the  end  of  war,  at  the  moment 
when  the  world  was  on  the  edge  of  a  precipice.  Their 
eyes  were  holden,  so  that  they  could  not  discern  the  signs  of 
the  times  nor  see  the  shadow  of  coming  events.  They  pro 
ceeded  in  the  even  tenor  of  their  satisfied  way.  Moral 
maxims  were  mouthed  without  moral  meaning.  The  church 
preached  a  luke-warm  gospel  and  a  tepid  righteousness  that 
had  reconciled  itself  with  arrogance  of  class  and  prejudice  of 
race.  It  attempted  the  forbidden  role  of  trying  to  serve  God 
and  Mammon.  The  moral  deluge  engulfed  the  complaisant 
world  with  suddenness  and  shock  as  completely  as  the  Mosaic 
flood  startled  and  overwhelmed  the  convivial  devotees  in  the 
days  of  Noah.  The  foundation  was  suddenly  swept  away  by 
that  hand  which  rules  over  events  and  brings  to  naught  the 
purposes  of  man.  The  highest  human  wisdom  has  little  predic 
tive  value.  We  can  with  no  greater  assurance  foretell  what  the 
next  five  years  will  bring  forth,  than  in  nineteen  fourteen,  we 
could  predict  the  momentous  movements  of  the  intervening 
quinquennium.  Czar  and  Kaiser,  King  and  Mikado,  Sultan 
and  President,  were  made  to  play  their  assigned  parts.  The 
Kaiser  of  the  Germans  may  be  considered  the  Pharaoh  of 
modern  times,  whose  heart  had  been  hardened,  in  order  that 
the  dominance  of  right  over  might  might  be  vindicated 
anew.  The  voice  spoke  through  the  mouth-piece  of  the  Allies 
to  the  heart-hardened  leader  of  the  hosts  of  oppression,  saying, 
"Let  my  people  go."  The  horse  and  rider  have  been  overthrown 
in  the  Red  Sea  of  destruction,  as  a  modern  reminder  to  kings 
and  nations  of  the  fate  of  those  who  would  stnnd  between  the 
people  and  liberty  which  is  their  due. 

A  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE 

It  is  not  necessary  to  invoke  the  doctrine  of  perfection, 
m  order  to  justify  the  part  which  the  Allies  are  playing  in 


5 

this  great  issue.     A  righteous  cause  may  be  better  than  any 
man  or  nation  involved  in  it.     An  evil  propaganda  may  be 
worse  than  its  most  wicked  advocate.     Christianity,  in  nine 
teen  hundred  years,  has  not  yet  produced  a  single  Christian 
according  to  the  rigid  exactions  of  the  cult.     Nor  has  the 
kingdom  of  evil  produced  a  single  unmitigated  devil.     The 
modern  crusade  of  liberty  is  better  than  any  allied  nation 
which  espoused  it.     The  doctrine  of  oppression  is  more  detest 
able  than  its  most  wicked  adherent.     Not  one  of  the  allied 
nations  could  pose  as  model  of  the  virtue  which  it  espoused, 
not  yet  claim  freedom  from  the  evil  practices  which  were  so 
bitterly  denounced  in  the  adversary.     A  nation  without  sin 
cannot  be  found  to  cast  the  first  stone.     In  the  readjustment 
of  historical  wrongs  of  nation  against  nation  and  race  against 
race,  the  victorious  Allies  will  be  forced  by  considerations  of 
prudence  to  choose  a  comparatively  recent  date  as  point  of 
departure,  to  save  themselves  from  serious  embarrassment.  In 
order  to  make  ourselves  worthy  devotees  of  a  righteous  cause  it 
is  not  necessary  that  we  should  be  free  from  sin  but  that  we 
acknowledge  our  sin,  and  promise  to  do  so  no  more.     Any 
nation  that  enlists  in  the  crusade  of  humanity  with  vain 
glorious  assumptions  of  self-righteousness  thereby  proclaims 
its  own  insincerity.     They  who  would  prepare  themselves  for 
vicarious  and  sacrificial  service,  must  first  submit  themselves 
to  serious  self-searching  with  deep  humiliation  and  contri 
tion  of  soul.     Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  one  commanding  moral 
genius  that  has  arisen  in  the  Western  hemisphere.     He  fol 
lowed  the  leading  of  the  inner  light.     He  heard  and  heeded 
the  call,  and  accepted  the  commission  to  lead  the  unrighteous 
hosts  in  behalf  of  righteousness.       But  he  was  all  the  while 
deeply  conscious  of  our  national  unworthiness,  and  accepted 
the  chastening  hand  of  affliction  with  a  groaning  of  spirit 
that  was  too  deep  for  utterance.     In  an  outburst  of  moral 
anguish,  he  exclaims:    "Yet  if  God  wills  that  it   (the  war) 
continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  up  by  the  bondsmen's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  un 
til  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by 
another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  The  judgments  of  the 
Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether/  "    The  vital  difference 


€ 

between  the  Central  Powers  and  the  Allies,  all  of  whom  had 
fallen  far  short  of  the  standard  of  national  rectitude,  con 
sisted  in  the  fact  that  the  Allies  stood  ready  to  acknowledge 
their  faults  and  prayed  forgiveness  as  moral  preparation  for 
the  great  contest.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Germans  valued 
the  discarded  methods  which  the  Allies  repudiated.  They  had 
the  foolish  hardihood  to  justify  their  misdeeds  as  a  part  of 
their  code  of  national  morality.  Great  indeed  is  the  con 
demnation  of  that  man  or  nation  who  breaks  the  moral  law 
and  justifies  its  transgression.  A  nation  cannot  wait  until 
it  has  become  perfect  before  espousing  right  ideals.  But  a 
declaration  of  high  purpose  arouses  the  conscience  and  re 
acts  upon  the  conduct.  Nations,  like  individuals,  rise  on  step 
ping  stones  of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things.  But  all 
moral  progress  is  estopped  when  misdeeds  are  justified.  The 
American  people  were  not  in  favor  of  the  emancipation  of  the 
slave  when  they  entered  upon  the  Civil  War.  England  was 
not  committed  to  the  doctrine  of  world  democracy  when  she 
joined  hands  with  Russia,  the  most  autocratic  state  in  Europe, 
to  protect  a  violated  treaty.  But  just  as  the  battle-cry  of 
freedom  soon  became  the  dominant  motive  in  our  Civil  War, 
so  the  World  War  had  not  progressed  far  before  it  became 
imperative  that  the  allied  cause  be  impelled  by  the  dynamic 
power  of  a  moral  watch-word.  To  Woodrow  Wilson  was 
vouchsafed  the  high  privilege  of  uttering  this  word.  All  the 
nations  of  the  world  have  been  made  nobler  and  worthier  by 
reason  of  the  righteous  doctrine  which  they  have  espoused 
and  extolled.  Never  again  can  the  weak  peoples  of  the  world 
be  ruthlessly  over-ridden  by  arrogant  power.  The  United  States 
has  assumed  the  world's  spokesmanship  for  the  doctrine  of 
human  liberty.  Never  again  can  the  American  Negro  be 
dealt  with  in  ruthless  disregard  of  this  declared  doctrine  with 
out  discrediting  our  righteous  advocacy  and  making  our  high 
pretensions  of  non-effect. 

THE  POWER  OF  RIGHT  DOCTRINE. 

-au  bna  tHfiu8  9d  .tlft  bn/s  bs-ibgrni 

Historic  epochs  enounce  dynamic  doctrines  surcharged  with 
pent-up  revolutionary  power.  These  doctrines  epitomize  and 
express  the  oppressive  burden  under  which  the  people  have 
been  laboring  and  embody  their  ideals  of  relief.  The  doctrine 


is  more  than  the  deed.  The  thought  precedes  the  thing.  The 
issues  of  life  flow  from  the  fountain-head  of  thought  and  belief. 
The  Christian  church,  not  unwisely,  emphasizes  the  supreme 
importance  of  orthodox  belief,  which  serves  as  the  standard 
by  which  right  conduct  is  regulated  and  controlled.  If  the 
people's  ideals  are  right,  their  conduct  cannot  be  wrong.  If 
the  people's  ideals  are  wrong,  their  conduct  cannot  be  right. 
A  pure  fountain  cannot  send  forth  a  corrupt  stream.  The 
world  is  ruled  by  opinion.  Revolutions  always  emphasize 
the  right  opinion  concerning  human  liberty  and  the  equality 
of  man.  ' 'Liberty,  fraternity,  equality" ;  "all  men  are  created 
equal";  "no  distinction  on  account  of  race  and  color,"  are 
maxims  which  epitomize  the  outcome  of  the  three  great  social 
revolutions  of  modern  times.  These  maxims  have  become 
axioms  and  are  appealed  to  as  self-evident  principles  in  all 
subsequent  social  progress.  Revolutionary  fervor  heats  the 
thermometer  of  public  sentiment  many  degrees  beyond  its 
normal  registry.  Great  truths  are  uttered  by  the  entranced 
prophets  of  reform  which  transcend  the  calculated  and  cau 
tious  judgment  of  calm  and  quiet  reflection.  Like  the  en 
raptured  apostle  on  the  Mount,  they  utter  words  of  marvel 
ous  wisdom,  though  they  wist  not  what  they  say.  The  moral 
watchword  of  the  French  Revolution  was  principally  intended 
for  Frenchmen  who  were  oppressed  beneath  the  heavy  heel  of 
haughty  autocracy.  The  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  was  a  slave-holder,  and  must  have  penned  that  im 
mortal  document  with  serious  reservation  of  mind  or  dis 
quietude 'of  conscience.  The  abolition  of  race  and  color  in 
civil  and  political  procedure  marks  the  most  daring  concrete 
application  of  this  abstract  philosophy  of  human  rights  to 
which  this  doctrine  has  yet  been  subjected.  The  world  is  still 
amazed  at  the  moral  audacity  of  the  great  apostles  of  human 
liberty  who  made  the  despised  Negro  a  citizen  and  clothed 
him  with  political  and  civil  prerogative  and  power. 
9ffl  rfoirfw  ni  sls&uiir 

THE  INHERENT  TRUTH  OF  SOUND  DOCTRINE 

otfsd 

The  value  of  doctrine  does  not  depend  upon  its  interpre 
tation  by  the  one  who  first  uttered  it,  but  rather  upon  the 
meaning  which  it  suggests  and  the  response  which  it  evokes 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  receive  it.  The  telling  sermon  de- 


8 

pends  upon  the  meaning  which  the  minister  imputes  to  his 
text.  Shakespeare,  who  fathomed  the  depths  of  human 
thoughts  and  feelings,  was  incapable  of  profound  intellectual 
or  moral  convictions.  His  maxims  of  wisdom  were  called 
forth  to  meet  the  requirements  of  mimic  art.  We  read  into 
his  words  a  profundity  of  thought  and  meaning  of  which  the 
author  never  dreamed.  A  word  once  uttered  can  never  be  re 
called.  He  who  sends  it  forth  cannot  retract  or  limit  its 
meaning  and  interpretation  to  his  narrow  interest  or  intend- 
ment.  The  early  apostles  of  Christianity  were  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  conviction  that  the  gospel  dispensation 
was  limited  to  the  Jewish  race.  It  required  a  divine  reve 
lation  to  convince  its  chief  spokesman  of  its  higher  intent  and 
purpose  to  embrace  all  mankind.  Universal  truth  en 
forces  universal  application,  despite  the  narrow  judgment  of 
men  who  may  not  be  able  to  see  beyond  the  circle  of  their 
own  circumstances.  The  story  runs,  that  a  colored  citizen  of 
a  southern  state  became  sorely  perplexed  as  to  a  practical 
definition  of  the  word  "democracy,"  which  had  recently  be 
come  current  in  the  discussion  of  the  issues  of  the  day.  The 
dictionaries  at  his  disposal  furnished  no  satisfactory  relief 
from  his  dilemma,  in  view  of  the  prescriptive  civil  and  political 
policy  of  which  he  was  made  to  bear  the  brunt.  In  the  midst 
of  his  bewilderment  he  decided  to  write  to  his  senator,  who 
is  far-famed  for  his  reactionary  attitude  towards  the  manhood 
rights  of  the  Negro  race.  This  distinguished  senator,  not 
knowing  that  the  request  came  from  a  colored  constituent 
replied:  "Democracy  means  that  you  are  as  good  as  I  am." 
He  was  thus  beguiled  into  telling  the  truth,  which  no  subse 
quent  qualification  can  affect,  though  he  may  expostulate  until 
the  day  of  judgment. 

WORLD  DEMOCRACY 

Democracy  for  the  world,  and  the  world  for  democracy,  has 
become  the  keyword  of  the  convulsive  struggle  in  which  the 
nations  and  races  of  mankind  are  involved.  This  instantly 
appeals  to  the  moral  energy  of  those  who  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden  in  all  the  ends  of  the  earth.  It  is  needless  to  speculate 
as  to  what  reservations  of  thought  or  qualifications  of  judg 
ment  lay  in  the  mind  of  the  statesman  who  first  gave  utterance 


9 

to  this  expression,  or  to  point  out  inconsistency  between  word 
and  deed.  It  is  more  important  to  know  that  those  who  stand 
in  need  of  the  beneficence  of  the  great  truth  hear  it  gladly. 
All  races,  colors  and  creeds  have  fought  under  the  inspiration 
of  its  banner.  It  has  become  the  battle-cry  of  those  who  yearn 
for  freedom,  the  tidings  of  great  joy  for  those  who  sit  in  the 
shadow  of  arrogance  and  power. 

DIVINE  RIGHT 

The  dominance  of  power  over  weakness  was  the  only  sanc 
tion  that  primitive  man  needed  for  his  over-lordship  among 
his  feebler  fellows.  As  soon  as  the  troublesome  qualms  of 
conscience  emerged,  they  were  assuaged  by  assumption  of 
divine  right.  All  of  the  historical  evils  of  nations  against 
nation,  and  race  against  race,  and  class  against  class  have 
sought  justification  on  this  ground.  The  overbearing  attitude 
of  the  Germans  toward  the  other  nations  of  Europe  was 
based  primarily  upon  might  backed  up  by  assumed  divine 
sanction.  Because  this  nation  had  reached  certain  superior 
attainments,  it  asserted  the  right  to  impose  its  imperious  will 
upon  others  without  let  or  hindrance.  The  arguments  which 
the  German  apologists  used  to  justify  their  conduct  towards 
other  European  nations  are  paralleled  in  every  particular  by 
the  assertions  of  the  anti-Negro  propagandists  in  the  United 
States,  who  would  hold  the  Negro  in  everlasting  subordina 
tion  to  the  white  race.  One  distinguished  German  philosopher 
declares : 

"As  the  German  bird,  the  eagle,  hovers  high  over  all 
the  creatures  of  the  earth,  so  also  should  the  German  feel 
that  he  is  raised  high  above  all  other  nations  who  sur 
round  him,  and  whom  he  sees  in  the  limitless  depth? 
beneath  him." 
Another  tells  us : 

"One  single  highly  cultured  German  warrior,  of  those 
who  are,  alas!  falling  in  thousands,  represents  a  higher 
intellectual  and  moral  life-value  than  hundreds  of  the  raw 
children  of  nature  whom  England  and  France,  Russia 
and  Italy,  oppose  to  them." 

With  the  proper  substitution  of  terms,  these  citations  might 
be  adopted  bodily  by  those  American  publicists  who  believe 


10 

that  God  has  appointed  the  Negro  an  inferior  place  in  his 
all-wise  scheme  of  things.  It  was  but  logical  that  the  German 
nation  should  raise  the  race  issue  in  the  world  conflict.  They 
first  appealed  to  England  on  the  basis  of  a  common  Teutonic 
blood  to  refrain  from  entering  the  conflict  in  behalf  of  the 
inferior  Celts  and  Slavs.  The  invited  participation  of  the 
yellow  and  black  races  was  reprobated  as  the  crowning  act 
of  apostasy  against  the  ordained  superiority  of  the  white  race. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  certain  type  of  southern  opinion 
which  is  wedded  to  the  divine  theory  of  race  relationship 
agreed  with  the  German  point  of  view,  and  denounced  the 
enlistment  of  the  black  and  yellow  races  to  fight  against  the 
lordly  white  race  as  a  crime  against  humanity, 
teriijssa  enoitej.-  irfaii 

DEEP  SEATED  EVILS 

«&biO    JdllffiSS  T  RffuBSE    OOB1    bff& 

There  are  certain  evils  which  get  themselves  so  firmly  lodged 
in  the  human  mind  that  they  can  be  eliminated  only  by  shot 
and  shell.  Men  at  one  time  sincerely  and  honestly  believed  in 
the  right  of  the  strong  to  own  the  weak,  as  master  and  slave, 
especially  if  the  strong  man  were  white  and  the  weak  one 
black.  This  doctrine  was  shot  to  death  at  Appomattox.  The 
last  important  public  utterance  of  Senator  Benjamin  R.  Till- 
man,  the  oracle  of  a  certain  school  of  opinion,  was  to  the  effect 
that  he  was  glad  that  the  Civil  War  was  resolved  in  favor  of 
the  Union,  and  that  the  Negro  was  made  free.  The  mind  of  the 
defeated  reactionary  gives  its  tardy  assent  to  the  righteous 
judgment  enforced  by  the  swrord.  The  German  people  sin 
cerely  believed  in  the  divine  right  of  kings  and  of  the  German 
nation.  But  this  doctrine  received  its  death  wound  at  the 
battle  of  the  Marne.  Enlightened  German  opinion  will  soon 
express  gratification  that  the  World  War  was  resolved  in 
favor  of  the  Allies,  and  that  the  detested  doctrine  of  divine 
right  of  kings  and  nations  has  been  shot  out  of  the  minds  of 
men  forever.  It  is  the  lost  cause  that  never  can  be  revived. 
The  anti-slavery  advocates  used  to  declare  that  whenever  a 
practice  became  too  despicable  for  human  responsibility,  it 
sought  vindication  under  the  shelter  of  divine  sanction.  It 
is  noticeable  that  those  who  assume  familiarity  with  divine 
intendment,  exhibit  least  of  the  divine  spirit  in  dealing  with 
their  fellow-men.  To  suppose  that  there  could  be  any  trace- 


11 

able  connection  between  an  All-wise  and  All-Good  Providence 
and  the  workings  of  the  minds  of  those  who  have  been  loudest 
in  denying  the  inalienable  rights  of  man,  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  would  reverse  all  our  received  notions  of  the  divine 
attributes. 

THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  RACE          r>9fn  bflR 

But  along  with  the  divine  right  of  kings  must  go  every 
other  semblance  of  divine  right,  including  divine  right  of  race. 
There  is  no  more  reason  to  suppose  that  God  has  chosen  the 
white  race  to  exercise  lordship  over  the  darker  races  of  men 
than  that  he  had  chosen  the  Germans  to  lord  it  over  the  other 
European  nations.  There  exists  in  the  minds  of  many  the 
deep-seated  opinion  that  the  white  race  has  some  God-ordained 
mission  to  which  the  weaker  breeds  must  bow  in  humble  sub 
mission.  Rudyard  Kipling's  "White  Man's  Burden"  is  but 
the  modern  refrain  of  the  exploded  conceit  that  God  has  given 
his  chosen  race  the  heathen  for  their  possession  to  be  broken 
to  pieces  with  a  rod  of  iron.  The  divine  right  of  kings  is  a 
more  acceptable  doctrine  than  the  divine  right  of  race.  It  is 
more  consoling  to  be  required  to  submit  to  one  ruler  of  divine 
designation  than  to  be  compelled  to  bow  in  subjection  to  a 
whole  race  of  persons  so  designated.  Most  of  the  unjust  and 
unrighteous  discriminatory  regulations  against  the  Negro  are 
based  upon  the  assumed  or  implied  superior  claim  of  the  white 
race.  Wherever  and  whenever  the  white  man  is  accorded  a 
single  advantage  because  he  is  white  and  the  Negro  subjected 
to  a  single  disadvantage  because  he  is  black,  it  represents  a 
discrimination  without  any  reasonable  justification,  human 
or  divine.  A  social  fabric  built  upon  this  basis  rests  upon  the 
foundation  of  sand  which  will  surely  be  shaken  down  when  the 
wind  and  rain  of  democracy  blow  and  beat  upon  it ;  and  great 
will  be  the  fall  thereof. 

KINSHIP  IN  INIQUITY 

ula  oj  9rrnj  9]  ^qs  orfT     .waK 

The  advocates  of  race  discrimination  are  spiritual  descend 
ants  of  the  defenders  of  human  slavery,  who  in  turn  bear 
close  kinship  of  spirit  with  the  Germans  who  believe  in  the 
divine  right  of  kings.  It  is  a  tragedy  to  see  men  of  genius 
prostituting  their  power  on  the  side  of  human  oppression  in 
stead  of  liberty.  The  most  tragic  chapter  in  history  is  the 


12 

collapse  of  the  Germans,  the  most  highly  favored  of  nations. 
They  misjudged  their  mission  and  misapplied  their  powers.  It 
will  never  again  be  possible  for  the  black  man  and  the  yellow 
man,  who  fought  side  by  side  with  the  better  element  of  the 
white  race  against  the  outrageous  pretensions  of  the  minor 
and  meaner  fraction,  to  believe  that  color  confers  any  divine 
favor.  By  what  possible  process  of  logic  can  it  be  claimed 
that  one-third  of  the  human  race,  because  it  happens  to  be 
white,  should  exercise  lordship  forever  over  two-thirds  which 
happens  to  be  colored? 

NOBLESSE  OBLIGE 

Some  individuals,  some  nations  and  some  races  have  present 
advantages  over  other  individuals,  nations  and  races.  If  there 
is  any  divine  attribute  to  whose  appeal  the  human  conscience 
responds,  it  requires  that  the  strong  should  encourage  and 
strengthen  the  weak,  and  not  aggrandize  their  own  conceit  at 
the  expense  of  those  more  helpless  and  hapless  than  themselves. 
Germany  might  have  uplifted  the  whole  human  race  to  a  higher 
level  of  science  and  achievement,  had  she  chosen  the  way  of 
liberty  rather  than  oppression.  The  strong  will  fulfill  their 
mission  in  the  world  by  playing  the  role  of  the  big  brother 
rather  than  that  of  the  big  bully.  The  divine  right  of  kings, 
the  divine  right  of  race,  the  divine  right  of  class,  the  divine 
right  of  power  must  go  the  way  of  all  wicked  and  detestable 
dogmas.  The  only  divine  right  that  will  be  acceptable  to  a 
democratic  world  is  the  divine  right  of  each  individual  to  make 
the  most  of  himself. 

RACE  PREJUDICE 

Human  history  abounds  in  deep  and  bitter  political,  religious 
and  social  animosities.  The  dawn  of  history  breaks  upon  a 
world  at  war.  Society  like  nature  has  been  red  in  tooth  and 
claw.  The  ape  and  tiger  have  had  little  time  to  slumber.  But 
race  prejudice,  as  it  is  understood  in  the  world  today,  is  the 
product  of  comparatively  modern  times.  It  has  sprung  up 
during  the  past  four  hundred  years,  since  the  Western  Euro 
pean  has  forced  himself  upon  the  weaker  breeds  of  man  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  Ancient  literature  contains  little  or 
nothing  of  this  form  of  race  prejudice,  under  which  eligibility 


13 

is  based  upon  flesh  and  blood  rather  than  upon  mind  and  spirit. 
The  Germanic  races  are  more  seriously  afflicted  with  this 
idolatry  of  blood  than  those  of  Latin  or  Slavonic  origin. 
The  Latin  races  have  had  as  wide  and  varied  contact  with 
weaker  peoples  as  the  Teuton  or  his  Anglo-Saxon  cousin.  But 
the  Latin  dispensation,  despite  its  manifested  imperfections, 
has  never  sown  the  seeds  of  race  hatred  in  the  portions  of  the 
world  where  its  power  held  sway.  In  South  America  and  in 
the  West  Indian  Archipelago  where  the  Latin  blood  and  au 
thority  dominated  for  centuries,  the  people  live  and  move  in 
racial  peace  and  good  will.  But  in  the  Teuton  cult,  color  is 
more  than  creed,  race  counts  for  more  than  religion.  The 
Negro  in  France  may  rise  to  the  level  of  his  talent  or  genius 
in  the  civil,  social  or  military  life,  but  race  intolerance  among 
the  Germanic  races  would  restrict  his  aspiration  on  the  mere 
ground  of  race  and  color.  A  Negro  soldier  might  rise  to 
superior  command  in  the  French  army,  but  should  a  Negro 
possess  the  military  genius  of  Alexander,  Caesar  and  Napoleon 
combined  into  one,  he  could  not  rise  above  a  designated  level 
in  the  armies  regulated  by  this  restrictive  spirit.  Some  one 
has  written  a  book  entitled  "If  Christ  came  to  Congress," 
and  pointed  put  the  strange  contradiction  which  He  would 
witness  among  those  who  profess  to  follow  in  His  footsteps. 
But  should  the  Man  of  Sorrows  return  to  earth  under  the 
similitude  of  a  man  of  color,  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  He 
would  be  denied  communion  with  the  saints  in  His  own  church 
which  He  died  to  establish ;  or  at  most,  restricted  to  spiritual 
relationship  with  those  of  His  own  assumed  complexion. 

AN  ANOMALY 

It  is  one  of  the  curious  anomalies  of  history  that  in  the 
recent  world  war  the  climax  of  bitterness  was  reached  between 
German  and  Anglo-Saxon  of  kindred  blood  and  spirit.  The 
German  nation  translates  its  doctrine  of  intolerance  into  logi 
cal  and  unmitigated  action.  The  Anglo-Saxon  rose  up  in  his 
might  to  defeat  the  lo  gical  conclusion  of  his  own  intolerant 
attitude.  His  good  seiise  has  redeemed  his  bad  logic.  The 
spirit  of  intolerance  b;ised  on  race  and  blood  has  received  a 
shock  at  the  hand  of  its  own  adherents  from  which  it  can  never 
recover.  Italy,  Spainr  France  and  Russia  and  the  Balkan 


14 

States  do  not  show  the  same  aversion  of  race  as  the  Teuton 
and  the  Saxon.  The  Saxon  who  is  but  a  Teuton  of  diluted 
blood  is  better  than  the  Teuton.  Some  Saxons  are  better  than 
others.  Race  aversion  whose  stubbornness  and  strength  over 
ride  considerations  of  conscience  does  not  characterise  the 
entire  white  race,  but  only  a  lesser  fraction  of  that  race. 
Of  these  the  Germanic  element  is  the  dominating  force  of  the 
world  today.  But  this  tough  Teutonic  intolerant  spirit  must 
yield  by  attrition  with  the  milder  and  more  human  dispo 
sition  of  the  great  majority  of  the  human  race  whether  Euro 
pean,  Asiastic  or  African.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  all  elements  of  the  European  peoples  have  come 
into  council  with  representatives  of  other  races  and  colors 
to  deliberate  upon  the  fate  of  the  world.  This  council  will 
be  brought  to  naught  unless  it  is  based  upon  the  underlying 
principles  of  the  brotherhood  of  man.  The  Japanese,  the  fore 
most  section  of  the  Asiatic  peoples,  are  now  speaking  with 
authority  for  the  yellow  races.  They  have  already  put  the 
world  on  warning  that  the  intolerant  spirit  of  the  more  arro 
gant  portion  of  the  white  race  can  never  be  accepted  as  the 
final  basis  of  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  among  men.  Race 
prejudice  is  the  greatest  evil  that  afflicts  the  world  today. 
Animosities  growing  out  of  greed,  religious  schisms,  and  politi 
cal  ambition  may  be  made  amenable  to  reason  or  force. 
Those  who  foster  race  hatred  are  defeating  the  millenium  of 
world  civilization,  whatever  form  of  value  their  contri 
butions  to  human  culture  may  take.  What  profit  is  it  to  gain 
the  whole  world  at  the  expense  of  the  soul?  German  effici 
ency  dwindles  in  importance  when  weighed  against  her  accom 
panying  arrogance  and  intolerance  of  spirit.  Unless  the 
higher  soul  values  shall  be  universally  recognized  as  transcend 
ing  the  intolerant  exactions  of  flesh  and  blood,  the  moral  unity 
of  mankind  cannot  be  attained,  the  devoutly  hoped  for  brother 
hood  of  man  is  a  delusive  dream,  and  Jesus  Christ,  as  Saviour 
of  the  world,  has  lived  and  died  in  vap. 

MORAL  CONSISTENCY 

9fl  1 

The  Allied  Nations  will  be  bound  in  ethical  consistency  to 
live  up  to  the  doctrines  which  they  espoused  to  meet 
the  great  moral  emergency.  All  permanent  progress  depends 


15 

rv  t- 

upon  the  stability  of  law.  The  Saviour  tells  us:  "Till 
heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in 
no  wise  pass  from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled."  This 
is  characteristic  of  all  universal  law,  whether  spiritual  or 
scientific.  It  is  independent  of  time  and  place.  This  is  true 
of  the  multiplication  table.  It  cannot  be  varied  or  modified 
to  satisfy  human  arrogance  or  pride.  Great  indeed  is  the 
condemnation  of  that  one  who  violates  law  and  justifies  the 
violation.  The  business  man  who  would  misapply  the  multi 
plication  table  in  his  dealings  and  justify  his  conduct,  must 
be  placed  under  drastic  penalty,  or  else  our  economic  fabric 
would  fall.  When  the  German  nation  would  ruthlessly  de 
stroy  weaker  nations  for  its  own  aggrandizement  and  justify 
the  destruction,  it  was  establishing  a  new  code  of  morality 
which  must  not  be  allowed,  lest  civilization  be  imperiled. 
There  cannot  be  one  law  for  the  weak  and  another  for  the 
strong,  or  one  law  for  black  men  and  another  for  white  men. 
The  ethical  principles  have  no  respect  for  geographical  lati 
tudes  nor  for  the  conventional  pride  of  men  or  nations.  What 
is  wrong  in  Germany,  is  equally  wrong  in  Georgia.  Atrocities 
in  Texas  and  atrocities  in  Turkey  call  for  like  condemnation. 
The  United  States,  as  sponsor  for  the  moral  issue  upon 
which  the  world  struggle  is  waged,  will  be  bound  to  treat  all 
of  its  citizens  with  the  equal  justice  which  it  is  now  proclaiming 
as  the  saving  doctrine  for  the  world.  This  nation  cannot  longer 
permit  its  own  Constitution  to  be  violated  with  impunity, 
while  insisting  that  other  nations  shall  observe  the  letter  and 
spirit  of  international  law.  It  must  practice  and  inculcate  the 
principles  of  justice  and  equality  at  home,  as  preparation  to 

serve  as  moral  monitor  of  mankind. 

ami  lo  iuo  woi$  ffiw  <pTg<r/f  orf-t  ;m  ji  %&  us3 

RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THOUGHT 

The  only  reconstruction  worth  while  is  a  reconstruction  of 
thought.  Permanent  reforms  grow  out  of  a  change  in  the 
attitude  of  mind.  The  weaker  element  is  always  governed 
by  the  attitude  of  the  stronger.  Programs  proceed  from  prin 
ciples.  As  long  as  man  looked  upon  woman  as  a  plaything 
and  a  toy,  she  was  a  nullity  in  the  state.  But  in  proportion  as 
his  more  enlightened  view  leads  him  to  regard  her  as  a  co-equal 
in  the  equation  of  life,  she  will  be  accorded  a  larger  and  larger 


16 

measure  of  privilege  and  prerogative.  The  Negro  was  at 
first  regarded  as  representing  an  inferior  order  of  creation, 
fit  only  for  drudgery  and  rough  toil.  Under  the  dominance  of 
this  idea,  he  was  made  a  slave.  So  long  as  this  notion  pre 
vailed,  he  could  hope  for  no  other  status.  But  when  it  began 
to  dawn  that  he  was  a  man,  with  all  the  involved  potentialities 
of  manhood,  his  captors  began  to  become  unquiet  concerning 
the  inhuman  treatment  heaped  upon  him. 

The  anti-slavery  struggle  resulted  in  profoundly  changing 
the  attitude  of  the  people  toward  the  Negro  race,  which  finally 
resulted  in  emancipation.  Chief  Justice  Taney's  name  has 
been  damned  to  everlasting  fame  by  a  single  sentence  that 
failed  to  synchronize  with  the  sentiment  of  the  nation  at  the 
time  it  was  uttered.  The  institution  of  slavery  rested  upon  the 
foundation  of  the  dogma  that  the  Negro  had  no  rights  that 
a  white  man  was  bound  to  respect.  The  leaven  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  and  the  anti-slavery  propagandists  had 
wrought  a  great  change  in  public  sentiment  concerning  the 
place  and  function  of  the  Negro.  It  was  in  view  of  this  altered 
attitude  of  mind  that  the  Negro  was  set  free  and  clothed  with 
the  prerogative  of  citizenship.  As  the  American  mind  began 
to  grow  cold  and  indifferent  on  this  issue,  a  strong  sentimnt 
was  arising  which  demanded  the  annulment  or  abolition  of 
the  reconstruction  amendments  to  the  Federal  Constitution. 
But  at  this  juncture  the  World's  War  was  precipitated,  which 
re-emphasized  the  doctrine  of  the  rights  of  man.  The  gallant 
part  which  the  Negro  played  in  bringing  victory  to  the  side 
of  liberty  has  also  served  to  liberalize  the  feeling  and  senti 
ment  in  his  behalf.  The  new  reconstruction,  therefore,  in  so 
far  as  it  may  effect  the  Negro,  will  grow  out  of  this  new 
attitude  3f  mind.  According  to  the  present  state  of  senti 
ment,  the  Negro  has  some  rights  which  the  white  man  is  bound 
to  respect,  but  others  which  he  is  privileged  to  ignore.  This 
moral  revolution  must  create  a  new  heart  and  renew  the  right 
spirit.  All  the  rights  of  every  man  must  be  respected  by  every 
other  man.  It  is  needless  to  attempt  to  formulate  in  detail 
the  particular  forms  which  this  reconstruction  will  take.  If 
the  spirit  of  democracy  prevail,  the  statutes,  articles,  and 
clauses  will  take  care  of  themselves. 


The  future  government  of  the  African  colonies  will  form  a 
chapter  in  the  new  reconstruction  of  greatest  interest  and 
concern  to  the  American  Negro.  During  the  past  four  hundred 
years  the  European  has  been  brought  into  contact  with  the 
African.  But  the  one  motive  has  been  exploitation  of  the 
weak  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  strong.  The  poet  Pope  has 
embalmed  the  deep  infamy  of  motive  which  has  dominated 
the  European  in  his  contact  with  the  weaker  breeds  of  men. 
Lo  the  poor  Indian  is  described  as  seeking  release  from  it  all, 
in  his  happy  hunting  grounds  beyond  the  skies, 

"Where  slaves  once  more  their  native  land  behold, 
No  thieves  torment,  no  Christians  thirst  for  gold." 

But  a  new  note  has  been  uttered.  The  beneficence  of  de 
mocracy  is  extending  even  to  the  man  farthest  down.  The 
enlightened  statesmen  have  united  in  declaring  that,  hereafter 
colonies  must  be  governed  in  the  interest  of  the  people  them 
selves,  and  not  for  the  aggrandizement  of  their  exploiters.  The 
haughty  Germans,  relying  on  the  ancient  dogma  of  divine 
right,  have  ruthlessly  ruled  the  African  colonies  with  iron 
efficiency,  with  sole  reference  to  gain.  It  is  agreed  on  all  sides 
that  these  colonies  must  be  taken  over  by  the  Allies  in  the 
interest  of  humanity.  They  are  to  be  governed,  as  far  as 
practicable,  on  the  basis  of  self-determination.  The  United 
States  is  under  heavy  moral  obligation  to  the  African  con 
tinent  and  its  people.  Under  the  spell  of  the  old  dogma, 
America  reached  out  her  long  arm  across  the  sea  and  cap 
tured  helpless  African  victims  and  subjected  them  to  cruel 
bondage.  The  Peace  Conference  will  be  confronted  with  the 
question  of  requiting  the  historic  wrong  of  one  nation  against 
the  other;  but  America  can  never  requite  the  Indian  whose 
land  she  despoiled  and  whose  race  she  extinguished;  nor  yet 
the  African,  whose  simple  souled  sons  and  daughters  were 
snatched  from  their  native  land  and  made  to  labor  for  cen 
turies  in  unrequited  toil.  But  the  adjustment  of  grievances  of 
French  against  German,  and  Italian  against  Austrian,  suggests 
the  deep  moral  obligation  to  this  helpless  and  expatriated 
people.  The  United  States  represents  the  highest  type  of  de 
mocracy  among  the  nations.  Democracy  will  never  justify  itself 


18 

as  a  world  influence  unless  it  can  be  becomingly  related  to  the 
backward  and  belated  peoples  of  the  world  in  such  a  way  as 
will  lead  to  their  speedy  development  and  reclamation.  Indeed 
the  immediate,  persistent  problem  of  civilization  is  the  satis 
factory  adjustment  of  the  advanced  sections  of  the  human  race 
to  their  less  fortunate  fellow  men.  The  infamy  which  has 
.hitherto  characterized  this  relationship,  stands  in  everlasting 
discredit  against  the  claims  of  Christianity  and  civilization. 
While  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  does  not  bestow 
authority  of  government  over  subject  races  and  peoples,  never 
theless,  we  have  taken  over  Hawaii,  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philip 
pines  on  the  ground  of  national  necessity  and  benevolent  as 
similation.  The  United  States  is  under  both  moral  and  polit 
ical  obligation  to  assume  responsibility  for  the  future  welfare 
of  the  African  colonies  taken  from  Germany  for  reasons  of 
humanity.  It  might  be  well  for  the  United  States  to  assume 
complete  responsibility  over  a  section  of  the  German  colonies 
as  an  example  to  the  world  of  how  a  backward  people  can  be 
governed  without  exploitation,  and  lifted  to  higher  planes  of 
civilization  under  the  guidance  of  the  democratic  spirit.  This 
government  would  naturally  enough  utilize  the  talents  and 
attainments  of  its  Afro-American  element  to  help  sympathet 
ically  in  the  government  and  development  of  their  African 
,  . 
Kinsmen.  ^  ^ 

SELF-DETERMINATION 

No  people,  however  lowly  and  backward,  can  be  effectively 
governed  without  an  element  of  self-determination  is  involved 
in  their  government.  There  are  ten  million  Americans  of 
African  descent  in  the  United  States.  They  have  naturally 
a  vital  interest  in  the  welfare  of  their  motherland.  The  Afro- 
American,  on  the  whole,  constitutes  the  most  advanced  section 
of  the  African  race  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world.  He 
is  best  qualified  to  utter  the  voice  of  two-hundred  million  black 

people  in  the  continent  of  Africa  and  scattered  over  the  face 

*TS      IK 

01  tne  gioDe.  ^  [mK  n6fni9D  fefliaM  rfofT9.^ 

RACE  LEADERSHIP^  toom  qe<-.- 

All  true  leadership  must  be  autochthonous.  It  must  spring 
from  the  midst  of  those  to  be  led.  The  real  leader  must  be  of 


the  same  blood  and  sympathies  and  subjected  to  the  same  con 
ditions  and  linked  to  the  same  destiny  as  his  followers.  No 
race  can  speak  for  another  or  give  utterance  to  its  striving  of 
soul.  Before  an  individual  of  one  class  can  assume  to  be 

.  vji  lOJlJ  JJJ5   JJaTOriT  9LCIJ3nOJ5vJCflTT 

spokesman  for  another,  he  must  forego  his  former  allegiance 
and  naturalize  himself  in  the  class  for  which  he  aspires  to 
speak.  He  must  leave  the  one,  and  cleave  to  the  other.  Should 
a  conflict  arise  between  the  two,  he  must  eschew  the  old  and 
espouse  the  new.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  by  blood  an  Italian. 
He  became  not  only  the  mouthpiece  but  the  oracle  of  the 
French  people;  but  he  must  first  become  a  Frenchman  by 
adoption.  The  white  man  is  not  disposed  to  become  naturalized 
in  the  Negro  race,  nor  to  forego  the  privilege  and  prestige 
which  his  class  and  color  confer.  The  Kaiser  is  the  most  detest 
ed  white  man  on  the  face  of  the  earth  today.  And  yet  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  amour  propre  would  revolt  against  the  suggestion  of 
subjecting  him  to  the  humiliating  conditions  which  without 

compunction  of  conscience  it  forces  upon  the  Negro. 

to  slqosq 


THE  LIMIT  OF  PHILANTHROPY 


.v 
In  the  days  of  slavery  when  the  black  man's  tongue  was  tied, 

noble  champions  arose  to  plead  his  cause.  The  voices  of  Phil 
lips,  Garrison  and  Summer,  ringing  with  righteous  indignation, 
quickened  the  conscience  of  the  nation.  This  race  can  never 
repay  the  debt  of  gratitude  for  this  vicarious  service.  But  the 
slave  has  been  made  a  freeman.  His  sons  and  daughters  have 
been  taught  the  art  of  disquisition  and  persuasive  appeal.  The 
black  man  must  now  plead  with  his  own  voice  and  give  tongue 
to  his  own  complaints.  The  white  man  can  yet  do  much  to 
champion  the  cause  of  the  Negro,  and  to  arouse  the  conscience 
of  his  own  race  against  injustice  and  wrong  heaped  upon  the 
defenseless  head  of  the  weak  and  helpless  people.  Altruistic 
advocacy,  however  genuine,  fails  to  arouse  the  desired  response 
in  public  feeling  and  judgment.  The  people  who  fail  to  pro 
duce  their  own  spokesman  can  hardly  convince  the  world  that 
they  feel  a  deep-seated  sense  of  injustice  and  wrong.  The  man 
who  feels  the  wound  must  utter  the  groan.  Although  the  re 
tained  advocate  may  have  a  genuine  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  his  clients,  the  persuasive  power  of  his  plea  is  weakened 

by  the  thought  that  his  own  destiny  is  not  involved  in  the  ver- 
sroi  ./tor 


20 

diet.  It  was  necessary  that  Moses  should  be  one  in  flesh  and 
blood  and  spirit  with  the  oppressed  people  of  Israel,  to  qualify 
him  to  stand  before  the  court  of  Pharaoh,  and  plead  their  cause 
with  plenary  power  and  unimpeachable  moral  authority. 

THE  VOICE  OF  THE  NEGRO 

The  white  man,  with  amazing  assumption  of  wisdom  and 
goodness,  has  undertaken  to  set  the  proper  regime  for  the 
Negro  without  consulting  his  advice  or  consent.  The  all-wise 
physician  disdains  inquiry  of  the  patient  of  the  nature  of  his 
ailment.  But  experience  proves  that  the  civilized  man  is  not 
enlightened  enough  to  govern  the  savage;  that  the  saint  is 
not  sanctified  enought  to  govern  the  sinner ;  the  philosopher  is 
not  wise  enough  to  govern  the  fool,  without  involving  the  con 
sent  and  participation  of  the  one  to  be  governed.  John  Locke 
was  a  keen  expert  in  the  workings  of  human  understanding, 
and  yet  he  was  unable  to  draft  a  satisfactory  constitution  for 
the  people  of  South  Carolina.  It  is  now  conceded  that  the  Euro 
pean,  with  all  of  his  assumed  power,  has  woefully  failed  in 
establishing  efficient  and  satisfactory  government  of  weaker 
races  and  peoples.  This  failure  has  been  in  proportion  to  his 
neglect  to  consult  the  interest  and  feelings  of  those  to  be 
governed.  There  can  be  no  good  government  where  the  prin 
ciple  of  self  government  is  not  involved  and  invoked. 

The  Negro  represents  one-eighth  of  the  population  of  the 
globe.  The  Peace  Conference  now  sitting  at  Paris  has  assumed 
the  function  of  the  Parliament  of  Man.  The  common  sense 
of  most  must  hold  the  fretful  world  in  awe.  All  classes  and 
races  with  just  grievances  to  be  remedied  or  wrongs  to  be 
righted  are  seeking  a  hearing  before  this  tribunal  of  law,  jus 
tice  and  peace.  The  laboring  men  throughout  the  world,  the 
Irish,  the  Jews,  dissatisfied  elements  of  every  race  and  class, 
are  demanding  a  hearing  through  voices  of  their  own  choosing. 
Shall  not  the  voice  of  the  Negro  be  heard  and  heeded,  if  the 
world  is  to  establish  an  enduring  peace  or  equality  and  right 
eousness? 

THE  NEW  RECONSTRUCTION 

The  United  States  belongs  to  the  victorious  nations,  and  is 
not  subject  to  technical  reconstruction.  Our  whole  fabric,  how- 


21 

ever,  economic,  political,  social  and  moral,  will  be  transformed 
by  the  new  democratic  spirit.  The  Negro  need  not  expect 
to  be  made  the  subject  of  special  legislation,  but  may  expect 
to  be  included  in  the  program  of  social  justice  and  human  op 
portunity.  Proscriptive  and  restrictive  regulations  will  be 
nullified  under  the  mollifying  influence  of  these  ideals. 

RIGHTS  AND  FIGHTS. 

The  Negro  represents  a  minority  in  the  midst  of  a  more 
powerful  and  populous  people ;  but  unlike  minority  races  in  the 
Balkan  States,  he  does  not  hope  to  win  his  cause  by  primary 
conflict.  He  must  rely  upon  the  essential  righteousness  of  his 
claim  and  the  aroused  moral  sense  of  the  nation.  He  is  a 
coward  who  will  not  exert  his  resistive  power  to  its  utmost 
for  the  unlimited  enjoyment  of  every  right  which  God  or  man 
has  conferred  upon  him.  There  are  certain  God-given  rights 
which  man  may  be  mean  enough  to  deny  but  never  can  be 
mighty  enough  to  take  away.  The  contest  which  the  Negro 
must  wage  incessantly  and  unceasingly  is  not  a  conflict  that 
would  result  in  the  destruction  of  the  social  fabric  of  which  he 
forms  a  part,  but  would  rather  lead  to  the  fulfillment  of  its 
declared  aims  and  ideals.  The  Negro's  cause  is  right,  and 
right  must  finally  win.  The  devils  believe  this,  and  tremble. 

STATES  RIGHTS 

As  a  striking  result  of  this  new  reconstruction,  the  old 
doctrine  of  state  rights,  which  had  its  origin  in  the  purpose  to 
to  subordinate  the  Negro  and  perpetuate  his  inferior  status, 
will  be  wiped  away.  This  reactionary  doctrine  has  stood 
athwart  every  great  moral  reform  which  our  nation  has  under 
gone.  It  opposed  unity  of  the  nation  and  the  freedom  of  the 
slave.  It  sought  to  defeat  prohibition  and  women's  claim 
for  the  suffrage.  Provincialism  has  been  the  bane  of  our 
national  life.  The  Civil  War  created  a  new  nation  with  domi 
nant  powers  over  the  states.  The  world  war  will  create  a 
new  world  whose  sanction  will  transcend  that  of  any  nation. 
Great  reform  movements,  now  sweeping  through  the  world 
and  the  nation,  will  benefit  all  of  the  people,  and  no  race  or 
class  can  be  shunted  from  the  benefits  thereof. 


22 
THE  OLD  RECONSTRUCTION  AND  THE  NEW 

The  reconstruction  growing  out  of  the  Civil  War  resulted  in 
adding  the  13th,  14th  and  15th  Amendments  to  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States.  The  13th  Amendment,  abolishing 
slavery  and  giving  the  Negro  his  freedom,  is  universally  ac 
cepted  and  uncontested.  The  14th  and  15th  Amendments, 
which  made  the  Negro  a  citizen  and  clothed  him  with  the  elect 
ive  franchise,  have  never  been  accepted  in  all  parts  of  the  na 
tion.  The  refractory  states  have  in  a  large  measure  nullified  the 
intended  effect  of  these  Amendments.  But  the  new  recon 
struction  through  which  we  are  now  passing  must  complete  the 
work  of  the  old,  so  that  in  truth  and  in  deed,  as  well  as  in  word 

and  phrase,  "There  shall  be  no  discrimination  on  account  of 
i      •• 

race  or  color." 

_,      .  .,          /.,,,-,  .          ~          .     b"u.  , 

The  failure  of  the  old  reconstruction,  in  so  far  as  it  may  be 

so  considered,  was  due  to  the  fact  that  it  never  met  with  the 
unanimous  acceptance  of  the  American  people,  but  was  forced 
by  one  section  upon  the  unwilling  acquiescence  of  the  other. 
The  new  reconstruction,  on  the  other  hand,  must  meet  with  the 
unanimous  consent  of  the  American  people,  North  and  South 
East  and  West.  What  American  dares  rise  up  and  say  nay 
to  the  demands  of  democracy? 

>9b 

GOVERNMENT  BASED  ON  INEQUALITY. 

Alexander  Stephens,  the  vice-president  of  the  Confederacy, 
stated  in  his  inaugural  address,  that  the  Confederate  States 
would  attempt  to  found  a  government  based  frankly  upon 
human  inequality.  For  four  long  years  the  bloody  struggle 
raged  around  this  issue.  Strange  to  relate,  the  world  war 
waged  upon  the  survival  of  the  same  issue,  lasted  for  the  same 
duration  of  time.  The  Confederate  cause  was  lost.  The 
German  cause  has  been  lost.  Any  cause  that  openly  advocates 
human  inequality  is  bound  to  be  lost  under  the  assault  of 
democratic  ideals.  By  the  irony  of  history,  the  political  heirs 
and  assigns  of  the  advocates  of  government  based  upon  in 
equality  are  now  in  control  of  the  affairs  of  this  nation,  when 
it  is  committed  most  unequivocally  to  the  doctrine  of  govern 
ment  based  frankly  upon  human  equality.  Woodrow  Wilson  is 
now  spokesman  for  democracy,  not  merely  for  this  nation  but 


23 

for  all  nations,  xc  may  be  said,  in  homely  phrase,  that  the 
South  is  in  the  saddle,  but  she  is  riding  a  democratic  horse 
which  is  headed  to  the  goal  of  human  equality.  She  must  ride 
straight  or  dismount. 

REACTION 

Reactionary  voices  here  and  there  may  be  expected  to  rise, 
but  they  will  be  drowned  in  the  triumphant  course  of  democ 
racy.  Over-buoyant  expectation  may  meet  with  disappoint 
ment.  Negro  soldiers,  returning  from  across  the  seas  with 
laurels  of  victory,  may  here  and  there  be  made  to  feel  the  sting 
of  rebuff  and  insult  by  the  very  people  whose  liberties  they 
fought  to  secure.  Intense  local  animosities  may  be  engen 
dered  in  one  place  or  another.  Outbreaks  and  murder  may 
spasmodically  occur.  A  comprehensive  understanding  of  the 
far-reaching  effect  of  forward  movements  must  discount  all 
this.  Black  laws  followed  the  13th  Amendment.  The  Ku 
Klux  Klan  came  after  reconstruction.  There  was  a  recrudes 
cence  of  race  prejudice  after  the  Spanish-American  War, 
in  which  the  Negro  had  played  a  glorious  part.  These  are  but 
backwaters  in  the  current  of  democracy.  The  tide  is  now  at 
flood  and  cannot  be  stemmed.  Already  the  most  conspicuous 
opponents  of  democracy,  for  fear  it  might  include  the  Negro, 
with  dying  gasp  of  defiance,  have  been  driven  from  places  of 
public  power  under  the  excoriating  lash  of  President  Wilson, 
Southerner.  The  logic  of  events  overrides  the  narrow  purposes 
of  men.  The  sign  of  democracy  is  written  across  the  sky,  in 
letters  so  bold  and  pronounced,  that  he  who  runs  may  read; 
and  those  who  are  too  foolish  to  read  will  be  compelled  to  run. 

RIGHTS  AND  DUTIES. 

The  Negro  must  not  be  allowed  to  make  the  same  mistake 
in  the  new  reconstruction  that  he  was  permitted  to  make  in 
the  old.  All  of  his  energies  were  focused  upon  the  issue  of 
political  rights  attd  privileges  with  little  or  no  reserved  power 
for  economic  and  industrial  advancement.  ''Could  Booker  T. 
Washington  have  come  upon  the  stage  a  generation  earlier, 
preaching  the  doctrine  of  industry,  thrift  and  economy  along 
side  of  Frederick  Douglass,  proclaiming  in  thunderous  tones 
the  gospel  of  human  rights,  the  advancement  of  the  race 


24 

would  have  been  built  upon  a  foundation  that  could  not  be 
shaken.  The  desired  product  involves  both  factors.  x/In  this 
new  day,  the  Negro  must  place  equal  emphasis  upon  rights  and 
duties.  He  must  deserve  all  that  he  demands,  and  demand  all 
that  he  deserves.  ^ 

SELF-RECLAMATION. 

The  government  can  only  give  the  individual  a  fair  chance. 
The  race,  he  must  run  himself.  No  trick  or  contrivance  of 
government  can  ennoble  the  Negro  beyond  the  level  of  his 
work  and  worth.  When  democracy  prevails,  the  upward 
struggle  has  just  begun.  Soil,  sunshine,  and  moisture  may 
abound,  but  the  seed  must  send  its  own  roots  into  the  soil,  and 
its  blades  into  the  air  by  the  push  of  its  own  potency. 

War  energizes  the  powers,  and  liberalizes  the  faculties  of 
man.  In  the  wake  of  war,  reconstruction  always  builds 
mightier  structures  than  those  that  have  been  torn  down.  The 
United  States  is  on  the  threshold  of  a  mighty  economic, 
educational,  and  moral  awakening.  The  worker  will  feel  a 
new  zest,  the  thinker  will  have  a  new  thought,  and  the  poet  will 
sing  a  new  song.  Opportunities  will  be  open  to  every  competent 
and  willing  worker  for  the  best  development  and  exercise  of 
his  highest  powers  and  attainments.  The  Negro  must  con 
tribute  his  bit  and  his  best  to  the  general  welfare,  and  derive 
his  just  share  from  it.  He  must  enter  as  a  competent  and  will 
ing  participant  in  the  new  issues  of  life,  and  must  not  fail  to 
help  promote  the  glory  of  that  new  freedom  whose  beneficiary 
he  devoutly  hopes  to  be. 


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PAMPHLETS  bY 

Rev.  Francis  J.  Grimke,  D.  D. 

1.  The   Roosevelt- Washington    Episode,    or    Race 

Prejudice .10  cts. 

2.  A  Resemblance  and  a  Contrast 10  cts. 

3.  The  Things  of  Paramount  Importance  in  the 

Development  of  the  Negro  Race 10  cts* 

4.  God  and  the  Race  Problem 10  eta, 

6.    The  Atlanta  Riot 10  cts. 

6.  An  Argument  Against  the  Union  of  .the  Cumber 

land  Presbyterian  Church  and  the  Presby 
terian  Church  in  the  U.  S 10  cts* 

7.  The  Progress  and  Development  of  the  Colored 

People  of  the  Nation 10  cts. 

8.  The  Young  People  of  To-day  and  the  Responsi 

bility  of  the  Home 10  cts. 

9.  Equality  of 'Rights  for  All  Citizens,  Black  and 

White  Alike .15  cts. 

10.  Christianity  and  Race  Prejudice 25  cts. 

11.  Character,  The  True  Standard  by  which  to  Esti 

mate  Individuals  and  Race* 15  cts. 

12.  Gideon  Bands :  A  Message  to  the  Colored  People 

of  the  U.  S.. 15  cts. 

13.  Fifty  Ysars  of  Freedom , ....  .25  ets. 

14.  Two  Letters 5  cts. 

15.  Evangelism  and  Institutes  of  Evangelism 5  cts. 

16.  A  Vision  of  World-Wide  Peace. 10  cts. 

18.  Rev.  Billy  Sunday's  Campaign  in  Washington,  D.  C. .  5  cts. 

19.  Effective  Christianity  in  the  Present  World  Crisis.  10  cts. 

20.  Victory  For  the  Allies  and  the  United  States . .  15  cts. 

21.  A  Special  Christmas  Message  in  View  of  Present 

World  Condition* 10  cts. 

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